Humans take up residence in all kinds of environments ranging from sprawling metropolises to some of the most remote corners of the globe that are largely devoid of our modern luxuries. Oftentimes though, we emigrate to other societies for a variety of reasons; curiosity, financial profit, for the sake of adventure, service, to spread one’s beliefs, or to learn about others. Richard Nelson, a white man that taught in one of Los Angeles’ toughest African American schools, is one of those people that left his home behind to learn more about himself and overcome his subconscious prejudices. His article “My White Experience in the Black Community” is an emotional and gripping memoir that can help all of us open our hearts to others.

In worst case scenarios, people flee from their homes to avoid persecution, enmity, exclusion, or even ethnic cleansing. Many Turks have had to flee their home country of Turkey, often via illegal and unsafe practices, with the hope of escaping a brutal dictatorship that no one wanted them to call Turkey their home. Zain Hussain recounts his emotional and life changing encounter with Turkish refugees on his volunteer trip to Greece.

Some of Earth’s most beautiful islands and oceans are home for other creatures, such as Pacific Golden Plovers and Loggerhead Sea Turtles. Despite lacking free will or methodology, they utilize a variety of complex systems to consistently find their way home even if it means travelling hundreds of miles across giant swaths of lands or water. These natural phenomena are astounding and still perplex scientists to this day.

Even the most microscopic creatures find homes for themselves, whether in our bodies or in the bodies of other animals. One such creature, though we would definitely consider it not welcome in our systems, is the trypanosome, a lethal parasite that is a scourge across much of Africa. Such parasites travel through a variety of hosts including worms, eggs, snails, birds, and flies to eventually end up within our bloodstreams.

I’m calling you friend, oh friend.

Thousand pieces torn apart

I’m calling you friend, oh friend.

I’m filled with the love of thee

Mistaken my piety,

Lost my mind in ecstasy

I’m calling you friend, oh friend.

On the road and on the lane,

In the sacred or profane

Among pious with the vain

I’m calling you friend, oh friend

In the river, I’m a haze

Through mountains, I will gaze

For all the world, to amaze

I’m calling you friend, oh friend.

A bird in deserted land

Found comfort at roses’ hand.

So my bleeding heart will stand

I’m calling you friend, oh friend

Passing the world of worry

Flapping wings in the empty.

Your love and joy lifted me

I’m calling you friend, oh friend

Timeless feelings unspeakable

A condition incurable

On a canyon unbridgeable.

I’m calling you friend, oh friend

All I see is my friend’s face.

Towards you I have to pace.

Hope has never lost a case,

I’m calling you friend, oh friend

Seas and Oceans become breath.

Lungs shatter calling your path.

Till the day this voice be death,

I’m calling you friend, oh friend

I’m not sick or healthy,

Not heavenly or earthly.

But everywhere, constantly,

I’m calling you friend, oh friend

Walking behind my friend’s ways,

Smelling rosebud through the hays,

Saying what Niyazi’s says,

I’m calling you friend, oh friend.

Translated by Mustafa Tabanli

This beach is one of the starkest reminders of the extent of human impact on oceans.

Kamilo Beach is not the only junk beach in the world. Similar trashed beaches exist in the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean and Baja California. The litter on these shores and in the seas is so excessive that it is even visible to the people on land. Out towards the open seas, huge garbage patches fill the middle of the ocean, like wide loops of rotating currents, also known as gyres (www.marinedebris.noaa.gov).

Gyres

Gyres are major surface currents that circle the oceans. They are driven by persistent winds and the Coriolis Effect which is caused by the Earth’s rotation. The human impact on oceans is displayed by the gyres. They gather trash released into seas from countries around the oceans and through rivers they carry the floating objects and trash spewed from fallen shipping containers.

This was dramatically demonstrated when a cargo of sports shoes were lost in the sea in 1990. The shoes floated and drifted with the currents. Eventually thousands of them washed up on shores from Alaska to California. The manufacturer provided the serial numbers of the lost shoes. Beachcombers responded to calls by researchers regarding the time and location that they found the beached shoes. When all the data points were combined, the gyre’s circulation period over 3 years was obtained. Tracking a spill of bathtub toys provided similar results.

Outsourcing of manufacturing overseas and worldwide supply chains are made possibly by networks of container shipping lines. For reasons of economies of scale, the containers are stacked precariously high on the decks. At rough seas in the open ocean, some of these containers are washed overboard. There are about 10 million 40-foot cargo containers in use in the world. Every year a few thousand of them are washed off the decks of ships in heavy seas. The lost cargo rarely becomes news; it often stays confidential among the ship owner, the importer, the exporter and the insurer. Many of the lost containers sink to the bottom of the ocean. However some of them float and release their contents. This is the source of the flotillas of running shoes, or the toys that get carried away by the currents and winds.

The great garbage patch in North Pacific Ocean covers an area double the size of Texas. Like a conveyor belt, North Pacific Subtropical Gyre rotates clockwise, carrying with it the natural or man-made floating objects. The life span of a gyre is about three years. The floating objects may end washed up at beaches or they may be drifted to the center of the gyre where the currents are weakest. This is where the garbage patch forms—from millions of tons of plastic and other debris covering millions of square miles (www.dels.nas.edu).

Plastics

Plastic nurdles are a significant part of the pollution. These tiny beads are used as raw material in manufacturing. They are carried in container loads across the oceans and are occasionally spilled in large amounts and dispersed at sea.

Compared to organic matter that rots, decays, and gets recycled back into biomass by organisms, plastic is durable. A single plastic water bottle can last for hundreds of years. Suspended in sea water, these plastic particles absorb toxic chemicals. When marine animals consume the floating plastic, disproportionately high levels of these toxic materials are accumulated in their bodies. Some of these animals end up as food on our dinner table. Yes, that plastic tossed into the sea returns back as poisonous seasoning in our diet!

Plastics are contaminating the food chain at different levels. The animals at sea mistake trash for food. The microscopic particles get absorbed by animals filtering sea water for food. Easily mistaken for jellyfish in water, plastic bags suffocate sea animals that ingest them for food. Larger items threaten sea birds and mammals. Seabirds die when their guts get clogged with swallowed plastic items, and other animals starve because their stomachs are full of debris (www.commerce.senate.gov/pdf/marinedebris).

Fishing

A serious source of marine debris is the fishing industry. Numerous fishing nets and floats get lost and are abandoned at sea. These nets, which may extend a distance of many miles, strangle turtles and other sea mammals. Fishing industries should be inspected to keep track of their gear. There are organizations like the Monterey Bay Aquarium (www.montereybayaquarium.org) that distribute information about environmentally friendly fishing. In a free market economy where people vote with their money, consumers should inquire about the sources of seafood and support fishermen that do not leave their nets behind.

Enforcement in open seas requires international cooperation. Vessels should be inspected at their ports of call. Volunteers spotting container ships may record differences in cargo and alert authorities for missing containers. Marine laws, fees, taxes, and insurance premiums can be updated to deter unsafe loading of container ships. In the long run, vessel designs, navigational routes, shipping schedules and weather monitoring should be improved for minimization of cargo loss. An international cooperation is essential to oversee these efforts. The balance sheet of shipping business should include the cost of loss-free transport of containers.

Human negligence

The seas appear to be vast, but we seem to have come to the limits of it by the sheer amounts of garbage dumped into the rivers and by the contamination by marine transportation. These are inescapable reminders that we have reached the limits of this resource. The sea often regurgitates whatever is dumped inside it. This is like a slap on the beach, where the ocean hits back at us with our own trash, not to praise us or show approval, but to bring before our eyes the chaos we have created.

The universe is granted with an internal maintenance system, recycling its own waste products, hence reflecting the absolute purity of the Divine in His creation. The responsibility of humans as “vicegerents” of the earth include using the Earth’s resources without dumping or wasting but safeguarding the environmental balance and acknowledging that every creation has its purpose in being and should be treated accordingly.

The trashed beaches and mid-ocean garbage patches are signs of the deadly and long lasting effects introduced by humans into the seas. This is totally avoidable. We should employ a zero waste approach to our consumption habits. Cost of reusing, recycling and safe disposal of products should be reflected in the price of goods. Laws and regulations should be updated and enforced to minimize the dispersion of long lasting contaminants into the environment. The shipping and fishing industries should be accountable for lost cargo and gear. The seabirds should not starve, and the turtles should not drown due to our negligence.

References

• Auman, H.J., Ludwig, J.P., Giesy, J.P., Colborn, T., (1997) “Plastic ingestion by Laysan Albatross chicks on Sand Island, Midway Atoll, in 1994 and 1995.” in Albatross Biology and Conservation, (ed by G. Robinson and R. Gales). Surrey Beatty & Sons:Chipping Norton. Pp. 239-44
• Spear, L.B., Ainley, D.G. & Ribic, C.A. (1995). “Incidence of plastic in seabirds from the tropical Pacific, 1984–91: relation with distribution of species, sex, age, season, year and body weight.” Marine Environmental Research 40: 123–146
• http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2003/feb/26/20030226-085636-3495r/
• Ebbesmeyer, Curtis; Eric Scigliano. 2009. Flotsametrics and the Floating World: How One Man’s Obsession with Runaway Sneakers and Rubber Ducks Revolutionized Ocean Science. London: Collins.

To find a way out

Toward that which it seeks and longs for

Travels with the hope of recovering what is lost

Travels from the reason to the heart

To bereft of power

To distinguish the hopeful

from among the hopeless causes

There’s a cold war between realities and imaginings

Dawn comes in dreams

When everything turns pale in the dead hours of the night

Dawn comes in dreams

Dreams are always vivid

Full of color

There when a man looks deep

Into unfathomed oceans

Beholds the past

The far future and what is near to come

What is old about to be replaced or renewed?

Dawn comes in dreams

When realities are too dark to endure

Dawn comes in dreams

In darkness a man suffers

The extreme of loneliness

When mouths are tight-lipped

As if zip-fastened

He wishes to sprout wings and fly

To the realms beyond and fly

Dawn comes in dreams

When events begin to drive me to give up hope

Dawn comes in dreams

These tiny and mysterious creatures of the water are called Plankton; included in these are passively floating or weakly swimming animals and plants. The word plankton comes from the Greek word “planktos,” which means “to drift.” The plankton that drifts in the ocean currents are among the most abundant creatures of the planet. A bowl of water taken from an ocean consists of millions of these tiny organisms; they cannot be perceived by the naked eye. The only way to really become familiar with these creatures is to find them and observe them with the help of a video scope or a microscope. Many marine plants and animals go through a stage in their life cycle when they are plankton, but they ultimately outgrow this stage. These types of creatures are called meroplankton. Unlike meroplankton, holoplankton are tiny creatures which live their whole life as plankton.

Plankton are also classified as either plant plankton or animal plankton. Phytoplankton is the scientific name for plant plankton, whereas zooplankton is the term used for animal plankton. Phytoplankton are usually smaller than zooplankton and it is hard to observe them even under the microscope. Most of the food chains in the ocean begin with phytoplankton, which are eaten by tiny zooplankton. These tiny zooplankton in turn are eaten by larger animals living under the water, including sharks and blue whales.

Since plankton are at the bottom of most of the food chains in the ocean, anything that causes damage to their lives may effect many other organisms. Losing large numbers of plankton may affect the abundance of krill, which is the main diet of whales. Phytoplankton produce oxygen that people breathe; therefore a decrease in the number of phytoplankton may cause problems for human beings. Most plankton live near the surface of the oceans. Pollution, especially that caused by chemical pollutants, has a direct impact on the water at the surface. This is a great threat to plankton populations. Plankton are not only critical for their role in the food chain, but they are also important for their usage in the production of valuable minerals. Ancient deposits of plankton, which were buried under the seafloor and later mined, have become important sources of oil, shale, and many other valuable minerals.

Like land plants, phytoplankton fix carbon through photosynthesis, making it available for higher trophic levels.¹ The major environmental factors influencing phytoplankton growth are temperature, light, and availability of nutrients. Phytoplankton can undergo rapid population growth or “algal blooms” when water temperatures rise in the presence of excess nutrients. While increased phytoplankton populations provide more food to organisms at higher trophic levels, too much phytoplankton can harm the overall health of the oceans. During these blooms, most of the phytoplankton die and sink to the bottom, where they decompose. This process depletes the bottom waters of dissolved oxygen, which is necessary for the survival of other organisms, including fish and crabs.

Major groups of phytoplankton include: diatoms, golden-brown algae, green algae, blue-green algae, dinoflagellates and crypto monads. Phytoplankton are being used as indicators of environmental conditions within the oceans because their populations are especially sensitive to changes in nutrient levels and other water quality conditions.

Zooplankton are planktonic animals that range in size from microscopic rotifers to macroscopic jellyfish. Their distribution within the oceans is governed by salinity, temperature and food availability. The zooplankton community is composed of both primary consumers, which eat phytoplankton, and secondary consumers, which feed on other zooplankton. Zooplankton can be classified into three size classes: Microzooplankton-protozoans and rotifers, Mesozooplankton-including copepods and invertebrate larvae, and Macrozooplankton-including amphipods, shrimp, fish larvae, and jelly fish. Zooplankton, like phytoplankton, are excellent indicators of environmental conditions within the oceans, because they are sensitive to changes in water quality.

The most common animal in the plankton group is the copepod. There are more than 7,500 species of copepods. Copepods are small shrimp-like animals.

Copepods have appendages that are used like paddles for movement. They eat diatoms and other plankton and in turn are eaten by other, larger, drifters. A single copepod can eat an average of 200,000 diatoms a day.

Amphipods, which are the main diet of the gray whale, look like a cross between a shrimp and an isopod. The amphipod typically ranges in size from 2 to 50 mm, although a few may be larger. Amphipods are common in aquatic ecosystems throughout many parts of the world, inhabiting marine, brackish, and freshwater environments. A few species also live in terrestrial ecosystems.

One of the most interesting plankton species is the barnacle. It lives in the upper zone of the oceans where the water only comes at high tide. The appearance of a barnacle is rather deceptive. At first glance it looks like a mollusk, but when you observe the larva of the barnacle the truth becomes clear. Barnacles cause serious problems on the hulls of ships and buoys.

Jellyfish, which are basically nothing more than a large stomach with long tentacles, are also plankton. Their tentacles have stingers on them which they use to catch and paralyze food and then bring it to their stomachs. They move through the water by pumping their stomachs. For the most part they move up and down in the water, letting the currents carry them from side to side.

Copepods, amphipods, jellyfish, and barnacles are some of the most abundant and well-known examples of plankton. The oceans of the world contain a world of tiny organisms; most of them invisible to the human eye and yet these are the basis for nearly all the life in the sea. Our awareness of these tiny creatures will help enhance our appreciation of God’s uniqueness and greatness. The more we learn about the mysteries of the deep, the more we believe in the existence of God.

Footnote

1. Trophic levels: Producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, tertiary consumer.